Chingteng-Nakata Metropolitan Area

SUPERMESSI · June 11, 2015

Hi!

I have decided to start a city journal for several reasons: first of all, it is my desire to show my work and to get some feedback, in order to improve my game; secondly, a thread like this one will keep me motivated in working in one region, instead of restarting regions again and again; finally, i may be able to help some other players who are looking for some bats, and getting myself helped with some doubts and other subjects instead of creating a new topic everyday.

Unlike some other cityjournals that are awesome (Tonraq, for example, which is a big inspiration), i will not use storytelling.

Well, the Region that i will use is poshbakerloo's The Grand Valley (which you can find here: ).In the right side of the map, i will be inspired by japanese cities, and in the left, by chinese ones.

However, since the amount of asian buildings its not very high, some architectonical characteristics of the cities may overlapp. Although this may be true, i will start with a main characteristic of chinese cities (at least from my point of view) as a differentiation factor: repeated residential mid rises and highrises (like the ones made by HKBT). Let's see in the future if i can diferentiate the two areas in other ways.

I am mixing a growing style with a plopping one. This has some disadvantages (i would be glad to hear some advices regarding this), but at least i don't get burned out in a particular city (since i have some different work to do there) and my computer won't be very slow i hope.

Another problem that i have to solve is the inexistence of lights in my cities (lol), but let's first develop the region a bit

I also want some advice regarding traffic simulator mods, to see if my rhw is fully functional.

Finally i have downloaded photoscape but i am a newbie at it, so don't expect, at least for now, some brilliant photoshops

This first city is still being developed. The name of it is Akaraku, and it is a suburban japanese city near the river coast. Today i can just post some close shots from a neighborhood, and i hope next week or something i can post a overall view of the city.

This photo captures one of Akaraku's school, with a nearby hospital, a residential mid rise and some residential houses

Here, there are some residentials, with a religious building (honestly don't know if it is a cemetery or a standard praying building :S) in a lake (next pic).

This is an artificial lake, with some strange beaches and some nice trees.

These next three pics capture a comercial area with some agriculture nearby and with a temple and a nearby highway.

An older comercial area with some residential buildings:

Some developments in the main avenue of this area:

_Michael · June 11, 2015

Very beautiful. For feedback, I'd reduce the frequency of the merge arrows in the RHW.

jmsepe · June 12, 2015

Another Asian CJ brewing in here!

Compdude787 · June 12, 2015

Yes, this looks pretty nice. Great start to your CJ!

And michae95l is completely right about the overuse of the merge arrows in your RHW pic. You should never put them on every tile unless you have a very short acceleration lane (i.e. only 1 or 2 tiles long). Generally, I leave a one or two tile gap between merging arrows for my acceleration/merge lanes. The image below is an example of what I am talking about:

SUPERMESSI · June 17, 2015

Very beautiful. For feedback, I'd reduce the frequency of the merge arrows in the RHW.

Thanks!

Meh it looks bad as you say, i was experiencing since i've never add arrows to my RHW (pretty new user of the RHW anyway).

;)

SUPERMESSI · June 17, 2015

Another Asian CJ brewing in here!

You're city journal is also inspirational. I've never been to Asia, but i will in the future, i just love the aesthetics of asian cities

You should post more in your CJ also, and i would love to have a playing evolution as good as yours.

SUPERMESSI · June 17, 2015

Yes, this looks pretty nice. Great start to your CJ!

And michae95l is completely right about the overuse of the merge arrows in your RHW pic. You should never put them on every tile unless you have a very short acceleration lane (i.e. only 1 or 2 tiles long). Generally, I leave a one or two tile gap between merging arrows for my acceleration/merge lanes. The image below is an example of what I am talking about:

Thanks, it looks way better in your photo... Some suggestions as to what do in the highway margins? Trees? Noise Barriers?

_Michael · June 17, 2015

Very beautiful. For feedback, I'd reduce the frequency of the merge arrows in the RHW.
Thanks!

Meh it looks bad as you say, i was experiencing since i've never add arrows to my RHW (pretty new user of the RHW anyway).

;)

Any type of lane marking always adds to realism! :yes:

SUPERMESSI · June 17, 2015

That is true, and i am improving in my realism skills xD

A small update, with some questions regarding some issues:

Overview of Akuraku:

Another overview (with the residential area being the part where the first pics where taken):

Questions: Do you like the transportation? Is it realistic somehow? PS: i probably won't change in this city tile (well, i have to finalizing building the HSR and Rail lne)

Some comercial/residential area where begins a transition in buildings:

Questions: The taller building, why is it cut in half? My pc problem or a common problem?

Question 2: Moonlight street mod - as you can see, i love to add a lot of curves to my roads/streets. That becomes a issue when using the moonlight, since curves stay with the standard asphalt road texture and the sidewalk is diferent (this also goes to not dragable FAR regarding the japanese sidewalk texture). Is there a solution for this? How do i balance it? Also, my moonlight streets seem to lack decoration... What should i download to turn those more vivid?

Lastly, some region views. Keep in mind that i am leveling the terrain xD:

Final question: How do you guys balance plopping buildings and growables? In this city i mostly plopped, so my streets are empty, something that really sucks... Can i plop cars in the roads looool?

RipRap · June 17, 2015

Great work!

you can plop your commercial and grow your residential areas. I still do a little bit of plopping, but only for metropolises.

You can achieve a beautiful city by using shift when you are placing zones to build. Consult your lot plop guide to see how big the lot sizes are. That's about it

SUPERMESSI · June 17, 2015

Great work!
you can plop your commercial and grow your residential areas. I still do a little bit of plopping, but only for metropolises.
You can achieve a beautiful city by using shift when you are placing zones to build. Consult your lot plop guide to see how big the lot sizes are. That's about it

Thanks and great work also!

But in the case of the CBD, since they are plopped, will they have traffic?

jmsepe · June 17, 2015

Yep! So long as residential isn't plopped, there will be traffic. Don't plop too much however because you'll end up disturbing the RCI balance.

Nice work in this update!

Forsma7 · June 20, 2015

First time check this CJ and so far looking pretty nice!

about the moonlight street side mod I might recommend you to use this instead of the SAM-10 from newest NAM: http://blog.livedoor.jp/moonlinght/archives/cat_59226.html

scroll down the page and see the mod for SAM 1 and SAM 9 though I personally would recommend the SAM 9 one.

About

hope that help..

art128 · June 20, 2015

Yes, DON'T use the moonlight street mod that comes baked with the NAM since it is BROKEN. (all T21 were to be redone, thing they never bothered to do because and I quote "too much work")

You might want to hit play a bit before taking the picture, they lack life. Otherwise, it looks alright.

Belfastsocrates · June 21, 2015

Superb start! I love Asian CJ's, it's not something I could do as it's not a style I'd be comfortable trying to achieve but I love seeing them by others.

Looking forward to following this!

Can I ask where you got the school complex in the first image?

Schulmanator · June 23, 2015

You are off to a fine start. Keep up the awesomeness!

SUPERMESSI · June 23, 2015

Great work!
you can plop your commercial and grow your residential areas. I still do a little bit of plopping, but only for metropolises.
You can achieve a beautiful city by using shift when you are placing zones to build. Consult your lot plop guide to see how big the lot sizes are. That's about it

Yep! So long as residential isn't plopped, there will be traffic. Don't plop too much however because you'll end up disturbing the RCI balance.
Nice work in this update!

First time check this CJ and so far looking pretty nice!
about the moonlight street side mod I might recommend you to use this instead of the SAM-10 from newest NAM: http://blog.livedoor.jp/moonlinght/archives/cat_59226.html
scroll down the page and see the mod for SAM 1 and SAM 9 though I personally would recommend the SAM 9 one.
About
hope that help..

Yes, DON'T use the moonlight street mod that comes baked with the NAM since it is BROKEN. (all T21 were to be redone, thing they never bothered to do because and I quote "too much work")

You might want to hit play a bit before taking the picture, they lack life. Otherwise, it looks alright.

Thanks all of you for the advice! It was really really helpfull!

SUPERMESSI · June 23, 2015

Superb start! I love Asian CJ's, it's not something I could do as it's not a style I'd be comfortable trying to achieve but I love seeing them by others.

Looking forward to following this!

Can I ask where you got the school complex in the first image?

Thanks a lot! I also love to play in differente styles and see different styles honestly.

The school, im not sure atm (i have the game turned off, but tomorrow i will check it more deeply), but try here: http://somy.gozaru.jp/

SUPERMESSI · June 23, 2015

You are off to a fine start. Keep up the awesomeness!

Thanks, and keep shulminating awesomeness with your CJ!

SUPERMESSI · June 24, 2015

Update: Akuraku.

After following the advice that other users gave to me, and after mixing growing with plopping (although i had to make some concessions in style regarding that):

Overall Akuraku view:

The area that i was working on (tall buildings are growable residential):

The area that will be shown in the close ups will be a part of this pic:

Commercial district with Residentials along:

Now, a interchange and part of the park (well i try to do parks/nature instead of parks menu and nature just in rural areas):

Hope you enjoy!

SUPERMESSI · June 26, 2015

A small update: Akuraku, an area in downtown (well there isn't really a single downtown, but with the concept i am referring to the area with the finance and comercial center). Some residential growable mixed with some ploppable (and also growable) comercial, with some transportation structures, and a park. This area is near the end of the city, so it is somehow hard do work on it (transition to the next city will be similar, and i have to conect the streets with roads to make the region view consistent).

TakemeThere · June 27, 2015

Nice job on that park, looks like it would be a great spot to relax in the city.

Good mix of buildings as well. I particularly like the gray one in the last image, do you remeber where you got it from?

SUPERMESSI · June 27, 2015

Nice job on that park, looks like it would be a great spot to relax in the city.
Good mix of buildings as well. I particularly like the gray one in the last image, do you remeber where you got it from?

Thanks a lot, i try to do different parks for some reasons: a) flora menu is not slower while loading, like parks menu. b) they blend in more natural in my opinion. (would love some different plopable paths, that will be awesome!).

The gray building is part of a pack which consists of 4 japanese midraises (the one being the animate that you see in one pic above, the building immediate next to it, and two other corner buildings, they are pretty nice and are in hd). I think i've downloaded it from simtropolis, but i cannot be sure since the search is not working right.

They are called japanese art buildings if i can recall.

I will later check when simtropolis search is working good.

Belfastsocrates · June 29, 2015

Very nice indeed, the building variety is fantastic. Looking good

SUPERMESSI · June 29, 2015

TakemeThere, i've found the building! FTW!

SUPERMESSI · June 29, 2015

Very nice indeed, the building variety is fantastic. Looking good

Thanks a lot Socrates but i wish the variety was even greater

July 1, 2015

Congrats, you've done a great job! :thumb: Now Its been a mystery to me for sometime as I have searched and came up empty handed, and here recently I have been seeing the "Sony building" as I call it pop up in varies CJs. It would be very kind of you to help me find it. :ohyes:

SUPERMESSI · July 2, 2015

Congrats, you've done a great job! Now Its been a mystery to me for sometime as I have searched and came up empty handed, and here recently I have been seeing the "Sony building" as I call it pop up in varies CJs. It would be very kind of you to help me find it.

Thanks a lot!

Its here: http://descargas.capitalsim.net/?sitio=csc&descarga=886

You can find there more files from jsteed, cool stuff imo

SUPERMESSI · July 2, 2015

New update, some areas in Shibota, a small city inside Nakata and east of Akuraku. Some random pics (well not actually random, but without a description, and some updates on the region view):